Black Ground Beetles in the garden.
Ground beetles are found in vegetable gardens, scampering across the ground or hiding under stones and logs.
How to avoid Slug Damage on Strawberries.
Slug damage can ruin strawberries grown in the garden.
This 91 year old gardener has decided to lift his strawberry plants off the ground, away from the slugs.
Slug Damage on Cabbage
A close eye has to be kept on young cabbages when planted out in the vegetable garden. They make a welcome meal for pigeons and slugs.
These cabbages were covered with netting to protect them from pigeons, but the slugs had eaten the edges of the leaves and left the veins. Read More »
Garden Hedgehogs Control Slugs
Hedgehogs control slugs in the vegetable garden.
As spring brings increasing warmth, hedgehogs will be waking up from their winter hibernation. They will need food and water as soon as they wake up. Meat based pet food and fresh water will keep them in the garden, so that they are able to eat slugs and snails as well.
Many hedgehogs are injured by garden forks and strimmers, so it is worth being careful when tidying up places they use to nest.
More information on how to encourage hedgehogs into the garden, so they can control slugs, is at www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk
Phoma, or stem canker
Phoma, or stem canker, is a fungal disease (Latin name Leptosphaeria maculans ) which can cause significant crop losses in winter broccoli and other brassicas in epidemic years.
Initial infections are caused by fungal spores which infect the young leaves of the recently emerged crop to form phoma leaf lesions. Read More »
biological control broccoli diseaseCabbage Flea Beetle Damage
Cabbage Flea Beetle has damaged the purple sprouting broccoli which has been growing in the garden over the winter.
The larvae of the Cabbage Flea Beetle have burrowed into the leaf stalks and the main stem of the broccoli. The plants have become weak and the leaves are loosing their colour.
The larvae left the plants when they pupated and have dropped into the soil. They will stay there until they hatch out into flea beetles and start to feed on this summer’s crops!
Click here for more information on cabbage flea beetle, the damage it causes to seedlings, and possible methods of control.
Wireworms in Potatoes
Wireworms (Latin name Agriotes ) are the soil-dwelling larvae of click beetles. Although there are over 60 species of wireworm, the main problems are Agriotes lineatus, Agriotes obscurus and Agriotes sputator.
Occurence of Wireworms Read More »
potatoesPotato Cyst Eelworm
Potato cyst eelworm (latin name - Globodera rostochiensis & Globodera pallida) is a serious pest of potatoes.
Golden cyst eelworm (Globodera rostochiensis) predominates in southern Britain while the white cyst eelworm (Globodera pallida) is more common in Lincolnshire & north of Yorkshire and Lancashire.
Symptoms of potato cyst eelworm
- weak and stunted plants Read More »
Cabbage Root Fly in Broccoli
One broccoli plant in the vegetable garden has been looking very sick, due to cabbage root fly. Read More »
Where in the World is TopVeg?
TopVeg is a vegetable gardening blog based in the UK on Sunk Island - a fertile area reclaimed from the River Humber, in a rural, isolated part of Holderness. The skies go on for ever, above the flat expanse of farmland.
We are below sea level, so look up at the boats sailing up the river at high tide.
The wild-life is diverse.
- We have wading birds on the mudflats and skylarks in the pea fields with constant birdsong.
- The downside is that the squirrels, rabbits and deer come into our gardens for regular meals.
Our proximity to the sea, brings a maritime climate, which helps our vegetable garden.
- Temperatures remain mild, never dropping to those of our neighbours, nor rising as high as those in the middle of the UK. Our bay tree survives outside in a sheltered spot.
- We are always damp - thanks to sea frets, and evening mists from the river, which help the vegetable garden grow.
But the best thing about our location is the quality of the soil.
- It is a rich, alluvial, estuarine sediment; classified as gleyic–calcaric alluvial brown soils (Soil Survey of England and Wales, 1983). This soil is very deep, extending down for many meters.
- A disadvantage of this soil is that it is very heavy, so has to be treated with great respect. We cannot work it or walk on it when it is wet.
- But when treated sympathetically our soil grows wonderful vegetables in the garden.
>Sunk Island is a very special place to be and TopVeg is firmly based here.
This has been written for the Garden Bloggers Geography Project which is endeavouring to place all the gardening blogs in the world.
